Footage emerges of the moment F-35 jet topples off the end of HMS Queen Elizabeth's runway | Daily Mail Online F***in' A** Brits, we sell you a shiny new warplane and you throw it into the ocean at almost your first opportunity? What gives, mate? From the article: "It is understood the UK is now working with the US on a mission to recover the wreckage which is believed to be more than a mile below the surface amid fears Russia would try to salvage what's left of the plane to examine the tech onboard." This is why we can't have nice things.
These things happen. Just after they entered service the U.S. lost an F-14 off the deck of the Kennedy.
Heck the sea floor off the north carolina coast must littered with plane carcasses the navy loses so many planes to training accidents there.
North Carolina is known as some of the best diving in the US. Mostly because of all the wrecks off the cost. U-boats sank a lot of shipping in that area (and a few subs also). But most of those kinds of aircraft would be off of Pensacola, in the panhandle of Florida. That is where the actual flight school has been since WWII. There was never much of a Navy presence in North Carolina. Not the Marines did, at both New River and Cherry Point. But I am not aware of any real "Navy" presence there.
The fleet out of Norfolk Virginia does a lot of its training flights, carrier certifications off the North Carolina coast. I guess they move south to be away from DC or maybe because the water is a little warmer. They have 5 carriers assigned to the port so there is usually at least one doing qualifications.certifications before deploying somewhere at any given time.
Do not confuse a homeport with where they do training. NAS Pensacola had been where all Naval Aviators had been trained since 1935. Cadets and pilots first starting out will have significantly more accidents than those already trained.
Do not confuse organizational charts with reality on the ground. You can google all the Navy deaths off the North Carolina coast in plane crashes or not. The choice is yours.